


Cutting Classes and Forest Benches

by wingedScribe



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Canon De Rolo Kids, Vax's Bench, most of the characters are only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 22:58:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12352278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingedScribe/pseuds/wingedScribe
Summary: A summer day is much better suited for exploring the woods and daydreaming about the future than staying inside and paying attention to lessons, if you ask Vax de Rolo; his twin has to agree with him.Post-Canon de Rolo kids explore the forest around Whitestone and talk about their own futures. A tribute to Critical Role, Vox Machina, and all of the young adventurers they've helped inspire--I can't think that Vox Machina's kids weren't also inspired to their own adventures.





	Cutting Classes and Forest Benches

**Author's Note:**

> After staying up until an ungodly hour crying about Vox Machina and all they've meant to me, I couldn't avoid writing something like this. Here's to all the next chapters of stories, and all new adventurers--de Rolos or not, in Exandria or not. Also thanks to redmasque for putting up with my constant screaming.

“Vax, could you  _ slow down?  _ For  _ one minute?”  _

 

The call followed after a dark-haired young boy, who hopped over a fallen log in the woods around Whitestone and continued further into the forest, pausing for only a second to call back to his twin. 

 

“You could  _ hurry up,  _ Freddie!” 

 

Through the trees emerged another young boy, this one with longer hair that had once been meticulously tied back into a ponytail but now was disheveled and strewn with leaves. He was breathing heavier, hurrying after the first and stumbling over the log with more difficulty; still, his heavier breath could be explained away by the fact that he was laughing. 

 

“We can’t all be as fast as you,” the older of the two twins groused, catching up to the younger after another moment. “Where’re you even going, anyway? We’re not going to get back in time for lessons--” 

 

“ _ Obviously,”  _ Vax said, rolling his eyes. “Why would I be out in the woods if I wanted to go to  _ history  _ again? I can just watch the clock tower and learn just as much.” 

 

“The clock tower doesn’t even cover twenty years ag--you know what, nevermind. If we really need to be there, mom will find us, and you get to explain why we’re out here. Deal?” 

 

“Deal,” Vax said, already heading further into the woods. “Hey, do ya think I can climb that tree?” 

 

Frederick Taryon von Musel Klossowski de Rolo sighed, running again to catch up with his brother and scrutinizing the pine tree that Vax was considering. “No, not that one. Branches get too skinny, you won’t be able to get up very far and you might hurt it. Try that one down there, that’s sturdier.” 

 

“It’s a  _ tree,  _ I can’t  _ hurt  _ it,” Vax complained, but headed over to the other tree anyway. 

 

“Don’t let Aunt Kiki catch you saying that,” Freddie called after him, and even from a distance away, his sharp eyes caught Vax blanch in instinctual fear. “That’s what I thought,” he said, too quiet for his twin to hear, catching up and starting behind Vax on the tree. 

 

Vax was faster, but Freddie was, frankly,  _ better at climbing trees;  _ time the younger twin spent almost overbalancing and grabbing the tree for security the elder spent moving steadily upward. Soon, though, both were high in the tree--high enough to look back and see the clock tower above Whitestone, and to see the forest around them. 

 

For a moment, there was silence--Freddie leaned back against the tree, allowing himself a grin and a long exhale. If he had the choice, he’d spend  _ all  _ of his time in places like this--high up, like the towers in the castle or the trees in the forest. His mother had taken him up on her broom, once, and that had been  _ magical.  _

 

Of course, the moment of stillness couldn’t last longer than approximately six seconds, which was also the length of Vax’s attention span. “Hey, what’s that?” 

 

He was scurrying down the tree before Freddie could look over in the direction he was pointing, so the elder twin could just hurry down, hoping that what it was was an interesting landmark they hadn’t seen before and not a bear that was distinctly less friendly than Trinket. As he hurried through the brush after the quick-moving Vax, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing, a little--as much as he hated to admit it, this  _ was  _ more fun than lessons. 

 

“Here!” Vax screeched to a stop in a small clearing, staring at something that Freddie couldn’t quite make out. “Freddie, come look!” 

 

The object that had caught Vax’s attention was a hand-carved bench, the style of which was vaguely familiar. The wood it was carved of was pale, but had been stained slightly green with years of placement in the forest; it was large, large enough that even Uncle Grog could probably sit on it. 

 

Vax’s attention, though, was on something else. “Look, it’s got my name on it!” He was pointing to the center of the backrest, which did indeed have the name  _ Vax  _ carefully and lovingly inscribed into it. 

 

_ Oh.  _

 

“You know it’s not actually yours, right?” Freddie asked, as Vax hopped up onto the bench, leaning back. “It’s for Uncle Vax.” 

 

Vax sighed, running a hand through his short hair and making it stick up, askew and untidy and the way he prefered it. “I  _ know,  _ Freddie. It’s too old to be for me--and anyway, Aunt Pike totally made it. I think I heard her talking about it at some point with Mom. Vax’s Bench. I wanted to see if I could find it.” 

 

_ So that was why you cut our classes to explore the woods.  _ Freddie had suspected that there was a larger reason, but hadn’t brought it up--Vax usually explained why he did things, if you gave him enough time. 

 

Apparently Freddie had been silent for too long, because Vax sighed, grabbing his hand and tugging him forward. “C’mon, Freddie, it’s really comfy up here. I didn’t want to find a bench in the woods so we could  _ look  _ at it.” 

 

“Fine, fine,” Fred sighed, pushing himself up onto the bench. It was comfortable, and as he looked over the details--simple, without the ornamentation that he expected from his father--he realized that Vax was completely right about Aunt Pike having made this.  _ She probably did it right after Vecna.  _

 

Freddie wasn’t stupid. He knew there were details of that fight, and of all of their parents’ fights, that they hadn’t been told. Some of them, they might never learn--and that was all right. If he went out on adventures, he didn’t think he’d tell his parents everything he did. It might make them try to keep tabs on him, or worse-- _ fret.  _ He didn’t think he could handle being  _ fretted over,  _ if he was a hero like his parents. 

 

He was still a little short for the bench, unlike Vax; Vax’s boots touched the ground, but his still dangled a few inches over the white flowers growing amidst the grass. He frowned, peering closer at them, flipping himself so he was lying down on the bench to get closer. 

 

“Huh. Snowdrops aren’t supposed to be in season right now, Vax.” 

 

Vax snorted, shoving his brother with a hand. “Nerd. They’re growing, aren’t they? They’ve gotta be in season to be blooming now. Or magic or something. Anyway, they’re everywhere here, they’re all through the gardens every winter.” 

 

“Yeah, ‘cause mom and dad planted them,” Freddie said, reaching down to tilt one of the blooms up to look at it. “Nobody’d plant snowdrops out in the woods randomly, though, and they aren’t native to this area--” 

 

“You’re  _ such a nerd, _ ” Vax complained. “Stop finding reasons the snowdrops are weird and just appreciate the fact they’re pretty, right? I like them.” 

 

“I like them too,” Freddie said, absently. Vax wasn’t looking at him, staring instead up at the sky; Freddie carefully plucked a few of the flowers, whispering a  _ sorry  _ to the plants as he did so, and started to braid them together, ending up with a fragile rope of white blooms. “I’m...not sure what to do with this. I could give it to Elaina?” Their older sister wore flowers in her hair, sometimes--usually when they asked her to, sure, but the snowdrops would look nice. 

 

“We could get a bunch of them and make decorations for Aunt Kiki’s antlers next time she visits,” Vax suggested. “And a little crown, for her raven. She likes snowdrops, right?” 

 

“Yeah, she always comes to see them when mom tells her they’ve started growing here again,” Freddie said, turning the braid over in his fingers. “...yeah, let’s make something for Aunt Kiki. Maybe if we do that, we won’t get in trouble for cutting class.” 

 

“Mom? Get us in trouble for exploring the woods?” Vax laughed. “No  _ way.  _ If anything, she’ll pretend to be mad and then ask us all about it later.” 

 

Freddie hummed in agreement, tucking the small braid he’d already made behind his ear and leaning back against the bench, staring up at the sky as next to him, he felt Vax settle as well, leaning against him just a little. 

 

“Vax?” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Do you think we’re gonna be adventurers like mom and dad and Aunt Kiki and Uncle Grog and all of them?” 

 

Vax hummed. “I don’t know. I want to see things and explore places that aren’t Whitestone. And see Ank’harel and Vasselheim without mom and dad, so everyone isn’t looking at us and knowing who we are. And I want to see the Underdark even though it’s supposed to be dangerous. I want to see  _ everything.  _ Being an adventurer seems like the way to do that, right?” 

 

“Yeah,” Freddie said. “I...I want to have stories like mom and dad do. Stories about us, you know. They have all of their stories, and it’s great, and Uncle Scanlan can talk about them for hours, and then dad can argue that he told the story all wrong for even more hours, and I love that--but, like. I want my own, you know?” 

 

“I know,” Vax said. His hand found his twin’s, on the bench. “So we’ll be adventurers, then. With some of the others if they ask _really nicely_ if they can come.” 

 

Freddie snorted at that, squeezing his brother’s hand tighter. “Yeah. We’ll be adventurers.” 


End file.
